Innisfail has experienced a six per cent jump in crime for the first 10 months of 2016 when compared to the same period in 2015.
And while local RCMP maintain there is no cause to be alarmed, they are concerned with two “trending” crime issues in Innisfail and area from the most recent statistics – thefts of motor vehicles and spousal abuse.
“Innisfail is still a very safe place to live and police. We are seeing some trending, like theft of motor vehicle increases and domestic violence increases, but being aware of it and trying to provide some programming to help victims, goes a long way in keeping the community safe,” said Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk. “We are working on those areas and we're not seeing some of the dramatic increases we've seen in the past, but we are aware of them.”
The latest RCMP crime statistics were presented to town council on Nov. 14. Matechuk's email report to council showed there has been a 19 per cent increase in motor vehicle thefts for the first 10 months of 2016 when compared to the same period last year. As well, spousal abuse complaints to the Innisfail detachment have gone up 13 per cent for the same time frame.
“Sometimes it is a reporting issue. When it comes to domestic violence we expand our reporting to include all different items and that was happening in the past, but we've got past that now and we are still seeing some increases,” said Matechuk, adding his detachment is working closely with its partnering agencies on domestic violence, including local Victim Services volunteers “Anything we can do to educate, and we work with (provincial) child and family services quite consistently, and people can get help that are impacted with spousal abuse.”
Matechuk's report to council also showed there were a total of 125 persons crimes in Innisfail from January to the end of October of this year. Those statistics, which include robberies, sexual assaults, assaults and uttering threats, compare to 106 that were handled by RCMP for the same period in 2015.
As for property offences, which include motor vehicle thefts, break and enters and frauds, there have been 469 reported to police during the first 10 months of 2016. That is down slightly from 2015 statistics when police handled 475 property crimes during the same time period.
“Anything that becomes persons crimes or anything people getting physically hurt is more concerning than property offences, because we want to see a safe community,” said Matechuk of the overall year-to-date statistics for persons and property crimes. “Our members are steady and busy, but not being overrun or overtaken.”
Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk
"We are seeing some trending, like theft of motor vehicle increases and domestic violence increases, but being aware of it and trying to provide some programming to help victims, goes a long way in keeping the community safe."
